Do any of these sound like you?

Typing emails or texts on your phone while peeing, biking, walking, or cooking

Shoveling food into your mouth while working in front of your laptop

Taking a shower or brushing your teeth at warped speed because you just don’t have time to waste

Having an idea for an art project or business concept and starting immediately to work on it (i.e. staying up all night creating a website or scheduling your one-woman-show in a week from that day)

If so, you’re sooo not alone.

But you are in danger of becoming burnt out.

Disclaimer: I am not the queen of slowing down. I am guilty of all of the above points. I am not trying to cure, treat, or abolish any of the said behaviors, but rather am bringing them out to the surface to be carefully considered. Please continue reading with caution. Thank you.

What’s the rush, creative one?

Are you afraid of missing out, finishing last, losing someone, or just plain ol’ expiring?

All valid fears, by the way.

I’m asking myself these same questions as I sit here at Charlotte Douglas Airport, in between a cancelled flight and my new flight, 4 hours later. Finally, I am forced. to. slow. down. And stop running. And... make a dance video.

Normally I would’ve stuck my nose in my laptop and got to “work,” i.e. email maintenance, catching up on video classes I missed, loading up my new scheduling software… wa-waaaah.

Something told me not to. I had just finished a 2-day soulful business retreat with my coach Joanna, where my main revelation was that I was rushing through so much in my life and business and it’s time to slow down.

Combine that with the fact that it’s almost August, the traditional season of slow-down, and I just had to stop and do something different.

My experiment with holding up a sign that read “Dance with me?” for 10 minutes resulted in me dancing alone, then with one person, then another, getting a few smiles or head nods along the way, and then later striking up conversation with a lovely man named Roger, a retired science teacher who currently works for American Airlines and is also an artist.

We chatted for a long time, and as most of the people around us went rushing by or didn’t even look up from their cell phones, we were making a human connection. (No judgement, by the way, on the passers-by who probably had flights to catch and whose fast pace I embody much of the time, as noted above.)

When I get back to New York it might be hard to keep this slower pace and outlook, but I am committed to the challenge.

And my loving recommendation to you this week is to experiment with the slow-down, too.

See how you function with a slower pace.

Do less. Do different.

Do the stuff you normally do with a sense of calm and peace.

Bask in the sun. Dance under the moon.

Give thanks for what you have instead of darting forward to the next thing.

I’d love to hear how it goes or what this brings up for you, so please take time to write in below.

(Notice if you’re rushing to click open another email after this, or if you can actually take the time to pause and reflect and share what it’s bringing up for you.)

slowly getting ready for takeoff,

Jess

p.s. Need an escape later this summer to help anchor in the slow-down? Today is the last day for registration at SOUL CAMP and I highly recommend you join us there!